Codes & Standards

ASHRAE

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) recently announced that five proposed addenda to ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2007, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, are open for public review.

Open for public review until April 15 are:

Addendum a, which clarifies that the standard applies to open-circuit cooling towers only.

Addendum b, which, for minimum ventilation requirements, references ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2004, Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality, rather than a specific section of the standard, and provides an exception allowing a regulating body to require more-stringent ventilation rates.

Addendum c, which adds vivaria to the list of spaces requiring specific humidity levels to satisfy the process needs in Section 6.5.2.3.

Open for public review until April 30 are:

Addendum d, which allows the use of high-solar-heat-gain-coefficient plastic skylights in climate zones 1 through 3 when high-diffusion skylights are used in conjunction with a multilevel photocontrol system.

Addendum e, which expands energy-recovery requirements to cover use by weather zone and for outside-air percentages equal to or greater than 30 percent.

In other news, ASHRAE recently announced that five proposed addenda to Standard 62.1-2007 are open for public review until April 30:

Addendum a, which addresses compliance issues that may result from unclear wording or phrasing in Section 5.

Addendum c, which adds air-cleaning requirements to Section 6. If the addendum is approved, intake air filters with a minimum efficiency reporting value of 11 would be needed for particulate matter 2.5 microns in diameter in non-attainment areas. Additionally, ozone air cleaners with at least 40-percent efficiency would be needed for systems in non-attainment areas designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as “serious,” “severe,” or “extreme.”

Addendum d, which adds occupancy categories to Table 6-1.

Addendum i, which requires that zones with environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) be supplied with more outdoor air than ETS-free areas of the same occupancy category. Outdoor airflow rate would be determined using “engineered methods with the approval of the authority having jurisdiction.”